Reminiscing
by SadSadPostTeen
Summary: There has been a series of murders in New York City, which involve certain techniques of strangulation and asphyxia. Natalia Verdorben, a medical examiner, suspects the murderer might be someone she went to High School with, someone who she saw become a villain. AU in which Sky High is a boarding school. LashxOC
1. Chapter 1

_Hey, everyone! This is my first Sky High fic! I watched the movie recently and I had this idea, I just wanted to get it out of my system. Please tell me if you enjoyed this, and I might post more chapters. Thanks for reading!_

The police dropped a body at my lab first thing this morning. I've been busy with other corpses, trying to find the nature of their death and the possible motives to it, but they asked me —they begged me— to take a look at this body as soon as possible.

I pull the white sheet off of the body. It's pale, looking almost green under the lighting in my lab. The first thing I notice is the darkened skin at his neck, his wrists, chest, stomach, and ankles. _Horrible_. I grimace, I may have been at this job for almost four years, but I still have a hard time watching all these corpses and picturing how they died. It's terrible.

I feel goosebumps as I take my scalpel and start running the blade down his skin.

 _The organs had been constricted, and the victim shows strangulation marks._ Is what I write on the report after examining his body.

The liver and the heart are completely ruined, they stopped functioning and that might have been the cause of death.

 _The lack of blood flow, caused by constriction of the body, caused the death of the subject._ I keep writing.

I've only seen these kind of marks and injuries in people who have been attacked by boas, or even some anacondas. However, a boa wouldn't go for the wrists, and it definitely wouldn't pay attention to the ankles. Something doesn't add up.

The brain might tell me something, it always does. But I need the family's consent to saw through the victim's skull, so I just stare at his head.

I scowl and narrow my eyes as I look at him, I think I know him. His nose and lips are familiar, his eyes are closed yet I still get an idea of what his face used to look like. The imagine I get in my head is a much younger one, a juvenile face that used to smile at me every now and then. I went to high school with him.

I'll just say it now, I went to Sky High, a boarding school that's suspended in the air by an anti-gravity device. I spent four years there, in the sky. This man on my table went to Sky High with me, but he wasn't in my class. He spent those four years training to be a sidekick. After graduation, a sidekick was assigned to those who had graduated as heroes, and this guy —Tim Barnett— had been assigned to me. Although, you should know by now that I'm no superhero. I turned him down, and no matter how hard he tried to persuade me, my decision of staying on the sidelines was final. I had my reasons, and I stay true to them to this day, and maybe you'll find out about them one day. Anyway, Tim ended up teaming up with some hero whose sidekick didn't want to save the world either. And now he's here, at my table.

I feel incredibly guilty, and I even want to cry. I hadn't heard of him until now, and he's dead. I guess he had been trying to save the world when this happened, at least that's what I hope. The few times I talked to him, he said he wanted to be the greatest sidekick ever, he wanted kids and everyone else to stop looking up to the superhero, and start giving some credit to the _other_ _hero_ that fought evil too. He was such a good kid, that's why I hope he died doing what he really wanted to do.

The police officers that brought his body told me that he was killed around midnight, in the streets of our lovely New York City. They said it had been a fight, between two _good guys_ and one _bad guy_. Well, I guess the bad guy had miles and miles of rope with him and was unbelievably agile to do _this_ without the other good guy helping out. Must have been a bad guy with powers, must have been a villain.

I feel a weird sting in my chest. I remember someone who could cause such damage and such marks. Not to this extent, though, but it's been seventeen years already. I shake my head and rub my chest softly, trying to make the sting go away.

I grab my phone and call Clara Beaufort. She's my friend, and a detective. She has been moving from one state to another for the past twenty years, and I've heard she's solved every case she's sticked her nose into. She's been working in New York for almost seven years now.

"Hello?" she picks up.

"Hey, Clara," I clear my throat as I keep my hand on my chest. "I have a body in my lab. He was murdered last night in—"

"Oh, yes. That poor man," she said before I could say where he was killed. "Strangled, I presume?"

"Maybe," I decided to keep the details for the police report. "Listen, I have a question. Do you know, by any chance, if the person he was with when he died was… a _superhero_?"

I whisper that last word, thinking it sounded almost ridiculous.

Clara scoffs.

"Yeah, ' _super_ ' all right. More like an amateur," she told me. "The attacker, however…"

She blows air out of her mouth.

"What about them?" I stick my phone closer to my ear.

"I've heard more than one case like this one," she swallows hard, probably taking a sip of her signature black coffee. "Back in Chicago, about eight years ago. Wasn't my case, but I heard from a fellow detective."

I've lived in Chicago. Hell, I went to college in Chicago, how didn't I know about this?

"You mean like, the attacker has powers?"

"What did you think? A normal person can't kill someone like that, even if they have a truckload of rope" she says bluntly.

"And what happened?" I mean in Chicago, and my voice sounds desperate, I know she notices it.

"I shouldn't have said anything, Nat," she sighs. "Don't obsess over it. Just write the report and give it to the police. That's your job."

She hangs up on me.

I can't believe this. There's a villain in New York, and I'm here to take a look at the corpse of every damn victim they leave behind. I pull the white sheet back over Tim's body and continue with my job, unable to take that thought out of my head .

I turn the lights off and call it a day once the clock strikes 9:00 pm. The only thing I need right now is my bed, a good glass of wine and a terrible movie. I hate terrible movies, but I like having some voices in the house, even if their dialogue is cheesy.

I have a car, but sometimes I prefer to walk, like this morning. If only I had known I wasn't gonna be in the mood for walking by the time my shift was over.

It's not that far, though, so I walked. My heart starts beating faster, it's strange, I don't even know why. But then Tim comes back to my head. Poor Tim, those marks on his body. And again, I think again about the person I knew who could do something like this with his powers. I don't know anything for sure, and I don't know if I want to know any of _this_ for sure, but my mind wanders as I walk home under the pale and flickering lights.

Home, sweet home. I put my key into the lock and the old door creaks as I swing it open. It's an old building, but I love it, and the thing that I love the most about it is that I can afford it.

I run upstairs and get into my apartment, that's waiting for me with all the lights out. Electricity is expensive, and I don't really need it that much, my power helps me a little in that department. I pour some wine on a glass and jump to my bed, kicking my shoes off. I turn on the tv and The Real Housewives of Somewhere is on.

My mind starts wandering again, so I grab the remote and start changing channels compulsively. The news pop up, and I see a lot of blue and red lights flashing and hear a lot of sirens. I straighten my back and sit on the bed, placing my wine on the night table.

"Two more victims," the news presenter says. "Are we dealing with a serial killer? Or a villain? Stay tuned."

They cut to commercials, but I keep my eyes glued to the screen, my mouth is open. I look out the window and I can see the lights from here. I bite my lip as my mind wanders yet again.

 _What if_ ** _he_** _is the one murdering these people?_

I feel a headache coming, so I lay on my back.

I don't know if it's him, I don't even know where he is right now. I haven't thought about him in a long time, but my mind wanders, it _always_ does, so I start remembering the day I saw him become a villain.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey, everyone! So I decided to post the second chapter just to kind of give you an idea of what I'm trying to do with this story, also I'm gonna keep writing more chapters because I'm having fun with this. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, please let me know what you think._

 _FLASHBACK_

There was a blizzard that morning. Probably the worst I've seen in my entire life. I love this weather, I always have, there's something so soothing and calming about watching the snow falling from amongst the grey clouds and hitting the ground that's already covered in snow. My mind, as always, was wandering that morning. Although, I can't remember what I was thinking about, anymore.

Someone knocked on my door and pulled me out of my thoughts. It was Layla. She was a friend of mine, with red hair and pale skin. Her power was unknown to most of the students at Sky High, but she showed me once. She can manipulate plants, it's beautiful. I haven't heard of her since we went to Magenta's wedding, I think she went to live to Brazil after graduation. You know, the Amazon rainforest and all.

"Hey," she smiled from the doorway. "Are you ready?"

I stood up from the ground and nodded. I straightened my plaid skirt and walked to her. It was December 13th, the day our parents would come pick us up for the winter break.

"Did you pack yet?" Layla asked me as we walked down the hall, passing by the other rooms.

"I packed last night," I told her.

"Really?" she seemed surprised. "We barely had any time to get ready for bed after dinner."

"At midnight, I meant."

"Huh. Couldn't sleep?"

"No."

"Too excited about your parents coming over?" she giggled.

"Lash went to my room," I confessed.

Lash was my boyfriend. We weren't supposed to date in school, there were _very_ strict rules about that, but we were really good at keeping secrets. I mean, most of the time.

"Oh," she whispered. She never approved of my relationship with Lash. "That's dangerous, Nat."

"I know, I tried to make him leave but he wouldn't," I said with a twinge of annoyance but also tugging on my lower lip, remembering how we had spent the night. Layla shook her head.

"Haven't you learned anything?" she arched an eyebrow. She was talking about the past year. The headmaster, Principal Powers, had bursted into my room and found Lash there –some girl in my aisle had told on me– but, luckily, we hadn't been doing anything, and we got out of it by telling Powers that we had been studying for our Heroic History test that was strategically programmed for the next morning. However, we still got detention the next day, it was forbidden to be in someone else's room after dinner.

I ignored her question, though.

"Are your parents coming?" I asked. It was a stupid question, I just wanted to change the topic. Of course her parents were coming, no one could stay in school once the break started, and no one could leave without their parents or guardians.

"Yeah. Are yours not?" She seemed concerned at my question.

"Yeah, they are," I reassured.

We came across Magenta, another friend of ours. Apart from her signature exasperated semblance, she looked tired that morning. She always told us how she didn't have a great relationship with her parents, they were both heroes but Magenta somehow inherited her shape-shifting power from a distant uncle and ended up becoming a sidekick. She always hated when parents came over, she said she could feel the disappointment in the air.

"How did you sleep?" Layla asked, looking at Magenta's face.

"Shut up," she answered and joined us as we walked down the hall, heading towards the auditorium.

I chuckled.

We finally arrived to the auditorium and waited in line at the gates. Before our parents could take us home, we had to sit through the Christmas concert, which some of the sidekicks had prepared. I don't mean to be rude, and don't get me wrong, I think those kids were very talented, but there were no heroes in their band. Principal Powers insisted that the most power-challenged kids worked in other activities.

I took my assigned seat.

The first rows were freshman girls, the next ones were freshman boys; then sophomore girls, and sophomore boys, and so on. All seated by alphabetical order.

I was a senior girl, and my surname is Verdorben. It's German. It means "corrupted, tainted". My dad comes from a long line of villains, and he's a villain himself. He blames it on his power. He can manipulate blood, wether it's _inside_ or out of a body, which has, of course, caused a lot of deaths. My mom's a villain too, and she can move things with her mind. I blame them for giving me a bad reputation during my freshman year at Sky High. It was kinda like the situation with Will Stronghold—the son of The Commander and JetStream— only the other way around.

As my surname started with a V, I was on the last row of senior girls, right in front of the first row of senior boys, in which Lash —Evans— would sit.

The parents would sit on the last rows, so they wouldn't bother to walk down all those stairs, and they would have a better view.

"Hey, baby," I heard Lash's voice. He had spoken in a murmur so the teachers that walked up and down the stairs trying to keep us quiet wouldn't hear him.

I smiled to myself and didn't turn around.

Lash had been my boyfriend for the past two years. We started —sort of— dating on the winter break of our Sophomore year; nor his parents nor mine had arrived and we wandered through the snow, waiting for them. Our relationship was… weird. The first year was fun, we had to hide from every teacher and some students we didn't trust. But the second year was plain weird. He would disappear, skip classes and hide from everyone, including me. Yet some nights he would sneak into my room and we would, well, you know. However, I loved him. I loved him so fucking much it even hurt.

Coach Boomer closed the auditorium doors, which meant all the parents and students were inside.

Principal Powers stood right in the middle of the stage, on a podium, as she welcomed the parents, as she did every year.

"Good morning, I am Principal Powers. As every year, it is an honour to welcome you into our institution. I will let the head of our Winter Show Committee, Gwen Grayson, to introduce our program for the concert."

I didn't like Gwen Grayson one bit. She was so fake, and I didn't even buy the whole sweet-girl façade. Layla almost hated her, but Magenta used to say that the reason why we didn't like her was because she spent too much time with Lash, and Will had a crush on her. Layla was in love with Will Stronghold, ever had been since freshman year, but refused to tell him the truth. Instead, she started going out with Warren Peace; and I have to say, he was much more of a catch than Stronghold.

Everyone clapped for Gwen Grayson as she took the stage. "Thank you, Principal Powers," she stood at the podium, and continued talking.

I felt a large hand on my shoulder and I slightly turned my head.

"Will you do whatever I tell you?" Lash whispered in my ear. It was the most confusing thing he had ever said to me, I had no idea what he was talking about. At first I thought it was something, like, sexual, but why would he ask me that three minutes before the concert?

"What?" I whispered back, but I don't think he heard me, and if he did, he just ignored me. He took his hand off of me and leaned back to his seat before Coach Boomer said anything, I noticed him staring at us from the corner of my eye. I turned my head back to the stage, where Gwen Grayson was speaking.

"And to mark this occasion, we've planned a special tribute to the most powerful super-being ever to walk the halls of Sky High," she said ever so gracefully. " ** _Me_**!"

Lightening struck the stage and two bright neon signs appeared: _Royal Pain_. The greatest villain, supposedly defeated seventeen years ago, was Gwen Grayson. As if that school could get any weirder.

She cracked open the podium she had just been speaking from, and pulled a weapon out of it. Every adult in the auditorium gasped, probably recognising the thing.

"Prepare to be pacified!" she said, with a distorted voice now that she had put an armour and mask on.

The Commander and JetStream walked to the front, as the mighty heroes everyone knows they are. Everyone turned to them, some sighing in relief and some watching in awe.

"Do you really think you're gonna kill us all with that little toy of yours?" he asked smugly.

"My dear Commander, who said anything about killing you?" she shot the Commander, who groaned in pain as the lightening fell upon him. We all turned to him, to find nothing but his suit. However, when JetStream pulled the cape off, we noticed that he had turned into a baby.

A damn baby, for God's sake.

JetStream flew towards Gwen, well, Royal Pain, and tried to take the weapon away from her hands, but she was shot by that thing and turned into a baby too. She had been flying when Royal Pain struck her, so she started falling. Mr. Boy ran towards her and caught her before she touched the ground. He was the sidekicks' teacher, he had been a sidekick himself, to the Commander, yet Will always told us how he sounded like he was in love with his mom. Royal Pain turned him into a baby as well, and then Mr. Medulla, our Mad Science teacher.

All of the students tried to escape, but the doors were locked. I didn't move from my seat, I was still in shock.

I felt someone shaking my shoulder roughly.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here," Lash told me, but I didn't turn to him. I was watching how Royal Pain was pacifying the people who were at the doors trying to get out. So **_that_** wouldn't be the exit, obviously.

"Nat, come on," he shook my shoulder even harder. I finally turned around when everything started to dawn on me.

Lash grabbed my hand and pulled me towards a little black door at the right side of the auditorium, he opened it but I pulled my hand out of his before we could go inside.

"What?" he turned to me with a confused —and slightly annoyed— look.

"My parents—"

"Your parents can take care of themselves," he said and grabbed my hand again.

"But they're gonna be looking for me," I resisted once again.

"We have to get out of here, Natalia," he said sternly, with a dark look. I didn't know what to do, I certainly didn't want to leave without my parents, but I was too afraid to stay.

I finally let him pull me through the door. We came out backstage, and we found all the instruments that were supposed to be played at the concert being played with by babies. I covered my mouth in surprise, they were _all_ babies. At least fifty of them.

"Oh, my God," I mumbled, staring at them, but Lash pulled my hand again.

"Come on."

We got out of there and arrived to the hallway, we could see the doors to the auditorium. They were closed. There was no one in the hallway, literally no one could get out of the auditorium but us.

I started walking towards the doors, thinking about opening them somehow, but Lash grabbed my wrist harshly, and pulled me back.

"We have to—"

"No," he cut me off sternly.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes. "We have to—"

"I said no," he raised his voice, then he took a deep breath. "Look, there's something I have to tell—"

He stopped talking when we heard something in the air duct. There was also a green neon light coming out. I frowned and walked towards it.

"What the hell?" I mumbled as I peeked inside.

"Nat, is that you?" I heard Magenta's voice.

"Are you there, Nat?" Layla asked.

"Guys, what are you doing in there?" I asked as I tried to pull the grille off.

"Uh, escaping, pretty much," Zach answered. He was Magenta's boyfriend.

I grunted as I failed to take the grille off, I wasn't strong enough to do it.

"I can't do it, guys," I told them. I turned to Lash, asking for help, but he shook his head. In that moment, I still had no idea what was up with him that morning.

"Hold on," I heard Warren's voice, you know, the guy I told you that was dating Layla. He moved towards the grille and pushed it off easily.

They finally got out of there. I saw Zach, Magenta, Ethan, Layla and Warren.

"What the hell is going on?" Ethan asked, but pretty much all of us were wondering the same thing, so no one answered.

An alarm went off, sounding all over the school and red lights started flashing. It was the fire alarm, someone had activated it. So, were a boarding school of teenagers with powers in the sky, there were bound to be casualties sooner or later, so the fire alarm was directly connected to the hero police. Thankfully, someone had been smart enough to activate it.

A couple of minutes later, there were flying patrols at the front of the school. The police officers opened the doors of the auditorium to reveal that almost every single person in there had been turned into a baby.

"It should take me a couple of hours to fix the pacifier," Mr. Medulla told the officer that was wrapping his tiny body in a blanket. "Please take me to the Science lab."

"I gotta go find my parents," I told Lash, and he didn't try to stop me now. He just nodded and walked away in the opposite direction.

I ran into the auditorium and looked for my parents through the sea of babies. I saw several officers taking Royal Pain out with thick, steel handcuffs around her wrists.

I spotted my dad, he was taller than most parents, specially because most of them were babies. Both of my parents were still adults, I ran to them.

"Oh, my dear," my mom sighed as she hugged me.

"We were so worried," dad told me as he placed a kiss on the top of my head.

"You're okay!" she ran her hands up and down my arms, as if she couldn't believe that I wasn't a baby.

"I told you she would be fine," dad said with a proud look on his face. "She's as smart and talented as her folks."

I didn't know about that, I mean, the only reason I wasn't turned into a baby was because Lash had taken me out of there. Then I thought about Lash, he had been acting really weird that morning, so I wanted to be with him.

I was about to get out of there when Principal Powers took the stage again.

"Your attention, please," she was stern, not wasting time in cordial smiles anymore. "Royal Pain has confessed that she's had people… _Students_ , in this school that helped her plan this… attack."

Everyone started mumbling and whispering.

A police officer approached her and said something in her ear. She nodded and cleared her throat right over the microphone. The auditorium went silent again.

"Police orders: I am forced to lock this school down and don't let anyone out until we find the culprits."


	3. Chapter 3

I wake up with the sound of birds singing outside my window. A grunt comes out from the depths of my throat as I rub my eyes and roll myself to the floor. That's the way I usually get off of bed, that's how I've done it ever since Mrs. Philpott rang her bell through the halls of Sky High, waking us all up at 6:00 am.

I head towards the bathroom with my eyes closed, walking around with my hands leading the way as I stumble upon the shoes and clothes on the floor. I've always been messy, I guess the strict rules of room hygiene in Sky High didn't correct that.

The water falling through the shower head is still cold, so I wait until it's sort of warm to step in. Ah, there's nothing like a warm shower in the morning, reminding you that you have a job to go to and money to make to survive.

After washing my hair and body, I open the cabinet behind the mirror over the sink. I need to put on lotion and deodorant, or else I'd smell worse than the dead people in my lab. No, that was wrong, just forget I said that. I'm not a morning person, I get all mean before 10:00 am.

When I close the door, I see myself in the mirror. Last night, as I reminisced about my days at Sky High, I remembered how I looked at the age of eighteen. Not much has changed, only there are more wrinkles in my forehead, less acne, and fewer smiles on my face. God, I used to be so fucking happy back then, prior to my senior year, that is, everything went downhill from there. I'm not saying that I'm miserable now, but I'm aware that the things that used to make me happy are now… different. I'm sure you'll understand.

I walk out of the bathroom and I'm suddenly hit by the cold morning breeze. What the hell? The window is open. It was closed last night when I fell asleep thinking about Sky High —wasn't it?— but it's open now. I wonder how long it's been open for. I mean, I heard the birds so clearly.

My first thought is that someone broke in. Oh, God. I'm not ready to confront a burglar because: a) I'm naked, and b) I'm naked!

I have only a towel around my body, how am I supposed to fight someone who broke into my home? When did they break in? And most importantly, are they still here?

I slowly open my room's door, carefully peaking my head out. Everything looks normal. I look back, just in case I'm in one of those movies where someone is so focused on what may happen ahead that they forget to look behind them, but I'm still alone. I walk out of my room with a lamp in my hand, you know, just in case. All the other windows are closed, and any expensive thing I might posses —like the tv, my laptop, my car keys— is still there.

I sigh in relief and go back to my room to get dressed.

It's too early to rush into my car and drive straight towards my job, so I decide to walk there. I think again, I mean, last night I wasn't in the mood to walk and I cursed myself for not taking my car. But then I thought of something else. When was the last time I went to the gym? I think last month I… stopped paying the membership because it had been like two months I hadn't gone to actually work out. I almost want to grab my sport clothes and crossfit my way to the lab, but for now, I think I'm just gonna walk.

The air is delicious, it's cold and refreshing, just what I needed to relax after panicking in the morning. What happened, anyway? Did someone actually broke in and took nothing? Or did I open it in my sleep? The latter seems much more realistic than a super ethical burglar.

The job's the same as usual. I step into the lab and two more bodies are waiting for me, along with Clara.

"Morning," she greets with a nod and a paper cup filled with black coffee. I can smell it from the doorway. I just nod in response. "These are two other victims of our super attacker."

She says that word in a sneerful tone as she gestures at the bodies.

"I know, I saw the news last night," I tell her with a sad voice. I close the door and put my lab coat on.

"Quit your worrying, kid," she throws her hand in the air. "We're working on it. And I'm sure some superhero in tights and cape is flying around, trying to find the supervillain."

She mocks again. I just nod along.

"You're right, Clara," I mumble and walk towards the tables in which the bodies have been placed.

"Well, I'll leave you to it. See you later, Nat."

She gives me a smile with her thin, pink-coated lips and walks out the door.

This time I don't want any more surprises, so I take the report which has been placed next to the bodies, and read their names.

The one that I grabbed first is a woman's: Beatrice Allen. I don't want to look under the sheet because that name rings a bell in my head.

I move to the other one, he's Edward Morris. I pull the sheet down, and I'm greeted with a horrific expression on his face. I almost scream, but there's no time for that, I just feel my heart beating violently against my ribcage and my hands turning cold. Poor Edward, his death was horrible, agonising and painful indeed.

I take a deep breath and cover him again. I'm not ready for this, so I take a step back and turn around, facing Beatrice again.

She's just laying there with her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. Her blonde hair looks ashy, her lips are pale, her eyelids are bruised and her nose is broken. That's a new one, the broken nose and black eye. I go on with my routine, opening her up with the scalpel and looking for signs of her death.

I make a longitudinal cut down her body and stop right at her belly. I notice a tattoo on her hip, on the right side. I ghost my fingers over it and squint my eyes, I know that tattoo. I've seen it before. I take my eyes back to her face and shake my head. Beatrice Allen was a girl I went to Sky High with, as well. She got that tattoo on the summer before our senior year. She was so happy about it, and we were all excited and impressed by it, specially when she paraded the tiny orange star at the girls' showers.

I bite my lips and close my eyes, tightly so I won't shed a tear. This is not what I had in mind when I hoped for a Sky High reunion.

Beatrice was a sidekick, her power was to turn herself into a beachball. Pretty impressive, but not cool enough for her to make it into hero class. I remember Tim Barnett had a crush on her. She was gorgeous, and even now on my table, with her lifeless body rotting away, she still looked beautiful.

Her organs have been constricted as Tim's, and her ribs are broken. All of them. I pull one of my latex gloves off and let my face fall on my hand as I feel a huge lump in my throat. I struggle to take a couple of breaths while I think of them, and then lift my head again. It's always hard to examine someone who you've known, and I've already done it twice in two days.

I fill in the report with everything I've found so far about Beatrice's body, and move on to the next guy.

I don't know him and his name doesn't ring a bell. The chart the police left me says he's older than Beatrice, he's 35 and won't live to celebrate his 36th birthday, and I wonder if he had powers. There's no way to know now that's he's dead, so I just examine his body as I'd do with anyone else.

Edward's organs weren't constricted and the lack of blood flow wasn't the cause of his death. He was simply strangled. Well, not simply, it was horrid. His mouth was wide open, just as his eyes.

I cover the both of them again with their respective sheets and sit on my chair. I suddenly hate my job. The job I studied seven years for, and tried so hard to find for almost two years. It's so hard to examine people you've known. Tim and Beatrice weren't even my friends, but I knew them. Back when we were all teenagers and expected big things of life. It was painful to remember those times when Tim dreamed to be a sidekick and Beatrice giggled and smiled with pride as she showed us her star tattoo. It's awful to see how their lives ended.

I need some air, to help my mind clear off and stop wandering back to the past. I rip my lab coat off and toss it to the floor, then I storm out of the lab. Surely there were looks on me, but I stopped caring about them when I realised that those damn looks are not gonna help me get my life together or make me feel better about myself, now they're just one more thing I have to ignore every now and then.

I walk down the street and stop until I can't see the building where my lab is, anymore. I lean on a wall and breathe in and out repeatedly. There's people walking by, and some of them even bump my shoulder as they rush to their jobs or to meet someone for lunch, or wherever they're going. I still can see those three people in my lab, being dead and all. But who's to blame? I mean, who murdered them? And why? And then I think back to him.

It's painful to think that he's the villain behind all this, and I keep finding myself denying it, yet again.  
Everyone always knew he would become a villain eventually, I knew that too. I mean, I didn't know it, but I figured, I kinda thought… More like assumed. I mean, it's not that simple. Nothing is that simple, specially when you're in fucking high school. Let's just say everyone assumed he would become a villain, and it hurts to think that he didn't prove them wrong.

Now my mind's wandering again, so I have to keep myself busy. After calming down a little, I go back to my lab. I make my way through the hallway, and I find someone waiting for me near the door.

"Hey, Nat," he smiles at me. It's Joey Higgins, he's the forensic psychiatrist here, one of the reasons why I can't saw people's skulls to check their brains. I don't really like him. He's really smart and great at his job, but he's a dork. I sound like a teenager now that I think about it, but, well, he is.

"Hi," I say and try to get to my door, but he steps in front of me.

"Listen, we talked about it, and we think it's best if you go home and rest—"

"We?" I ask bluntly. Who has been talking about me?

"Dr. Zellner, Kurt and I, we talked—"

"Why?" I cut him off again, getting a little angry at him. Why have they been talking about me?

"You seem affected by something today," he whispers so no one can hear us, as if I should be ashamed for having emotions. "Maybe it's the victims you've seen today, did you know them?"

I decide to keep his question unanswered.

"I won't go home, I still have to check—"

"Kurt can do it," now he cuts me off, and it pissed me off. Kurt is a medical examiner as well, but I don't like him. Now that I think about it, I don't like a lot of people. Not a lot of people I work with, that is.

"That's the question: can Kurt do it?" I arch an eyebrow. It feels good to say that, because it's usually me the subject in that sentence, instead of Kurt. Can Natalia do it? We should get Kurt instead. It bothers me. I might be a little younger, but I know I can do my job.

"He can. Don't worry, Nat," he places a hand on my shoulder. "Just go home, everything will look better tomorrow."

I hate to admit it, but he might be right. I mean, I am already so upset and overwhelmed about everything that I'm probably gonna miss things about the bodies that could lead us to the killer. I decide to leave it for tomorrow, to see it with a fresh set of eyes.

I sigh and nod.

"Just let me get my purse," I tell him and he steps aside to let me pass.

What a bore. What am I supposed to do now? Well, all I know is I'm starving, so I know what my next stop is gonna be.

I head to the nearest Starbucks. I wish I could say that I'm the kind of person who goes to those places where coffee is cheaper and much better, but I'm not. There's a Starbucks in every corner and I'm so not in the mood for walking. Plus, I'm starving. Did I already say that?

Anyway, I have a cup of coffee and a muffin, that's all it is, no need for fancy names. As I look through the window, I feel completely alone. I've been on my own for over six years since I graduated from college, and never have I felt this way. Maybe it's seeing my high school classmates, maybe it's the fact they're dead, but I feel an emptiness inside me that this blueberry muffin is doing a lousy job at filling.

The red and orange lights of an ambulance flash through the street and the siren wails loudly. I open my eyes widely. My first thought is that there's another dead body, with the same signs as the ones I have been examining. But I shake that thought off my head. Then another ambulance drives by, and a couple of NYPD patrols are following it.

I run out of the coffee shop and follow the lights and sirens. I lose sight of them as they turn on a street, but other patrols are coming and heading towards the same direction, so I follow those instead.

I arrive to the crime scene and see a stretcher with a sheet covering whoever is on it. I spot Clara, so I go to her.

"What is this?" I ask.

"Looks like our super killer has struck again," Clara says with disdain. I look back at the dead body, and then back at my friend.

"In plain daylight?"

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at work?" she ignores my question.

"They sent me home," I look down, but I just know she's arching one of her blonde eyebrows.

"How come?"

"Turns out I knew the victims from last night," I say. "It kind of affected me."

"Mhm," she hums simply. She's never been the sentimental kind.

"Can I take a look at this one?" I point my finger at the new victim.

Clara raises her hand and bows her head. "Be my guest."

I warily make my way towards them, and slowly take the sheet off. I drop my jaw at the sight of her, and I feel a hole in my chest. I swallow hard and keep pulling the sheet down with shaking hands.

I could drop to my knees and cry. But I just put a hand over my mouth and close my eyes.

"You know her?" Clara approaches me. I didn't hear her coming. I nod.

"She was my friend in high school," I answer with a lump in my throat.

"You were very close, huh?"

I nod again and feel the tears burning my cheeks.

Well, fuck me. I was sort of glad I was sent home earlier, so I wouldn't have to be the one to open her up and examine her organs. Kurt would do it.

"Nat, I'm so sorry," I felt Clara's hand on my shoulder. She isn't much of a sentimental, so her hand is just awkwardly resting there.

I open my eyes again and see that Clara already pulled the sheet back on her, so I take it down again.

"Do you want me to give you a minute?" she asks.

"Please," I mumble and she nods, then she walks away, telling the paramedics to wait a minute.

I look down at the stretcher and take a look at her. Her black hair is loose, there's still that purple strike amongst the blackness. I press my lips together tightly, just to keep my sobs from coming out. She used to be one of my best friends. I went to her fucking wedding three years ago, for God's sake. I never thought that would be the last time I'd see her alive.


End file.
